Efficient Resource Management of Health Services: An Evaluation on the Cases of Central Purchasing of the Vitreoretinal Surgery and Total Parenteral Nutrition Devices and Equipment

The Public Hospitals Administration of Turkey was founded as affiliated to Ministry of Health in 2011 by the Statutory Decree 663, which restructured the Ministry. Under this regulation, the training and research hospitals, state hospitals, and oral and dental health centres have been affiliated to the Unions of the Public Hospitals, which is the decentralized organization of the Public Hospitals Administration, currently, administered by General Secretariats. The purpose of such a restructuring was to make purchasing plans central by means of the unions, and hence, create price competition and decrease costs. Recently, the restructuring has been criticized in that a three-headed health structure was created in provinces with the foundation of the General Secretariats and the Public Health Directorates, the decentralized organization of the Turkey Public Health Institute. Under the statutory law 694, the Institution of Public Hospitals, renamed as the General Directorate of Public Hospitals, was reorganized as a unit of Ministry, and its affiliated units in the provinces were transferred to the provincial health directorates. This paper aims to provide a perspective on the debates over whether the General Secretariats’ foundation and, in general, the organization of the public health services was functional in terms of the efficiency of goods and services purchasing. In this study, the procurements of the vitreoretinal surgery and total parenteral nutrition (TPN) devices and equipment, planned by the abolished General Secretariat of Ankara 1st Regional Public Hospitals Union, are examined and economic contributions of the central purchasing method are evaluated